| Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935). Collected Poems. 1921. |
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| I. The Man Against the Sky |
| 24. Bewick Finzer |
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| TIME was when his half million drew | |
| The breath of six per cent; | |
| But soon the worm of what-was-not | |
| Fed hard on his content; | |
| And something crumbled in his brain | 5 |
| When his half million went. | |
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| Time passed, and filled along with his | |
| The place of many more; | |
| Time came, and hardly one of us | |
| Had credence to restore, | 10 |
| From what appeared one day, the man | |
| Whom we had known before. | |
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| The broken voice, the withered neck, | |
| The coat worn out with care, | |
| The cleanliness of indigence, | 15 |
| The brilliance of despair, | |
| The fond imponderable dreams | |
| Of affluence,—all were there. | |
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| Poor Finzer, with his dreams and schemes, | |
| Fares hard now in the race, | 20 |
| With heart and eye that have a task | |
| When he looks in the face | |
| Of one who might so easily | |
| Have been in Finzer’s place. | |
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| He comes unfailing for the loan | 25 |
| We give and then forget; | |
| He comes, and probably for years | |
| Will he be coming yet,— | |
| Familiar as an old mistake, | |
| And futile as regret. | 30 |
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